1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for purifying water.
It is known that, in general, natural water has to be purified before being suitable for human consumption. For certain types of waters, this purification can be obtained with a simple filtration through an appropriate filter (such as a bed of sand, or similar), but it may also require a prior treatment consisting in flocculating the main impurities followed by a clarification to separate the obtained flocks from the pre-purified water which will be subsequently treated by filtration.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a number of countries or remote areas, the natural water which is available is more or less pure and is treated by using filtration processes and devices such as those described in DE No. 1 811 507 (UNION TANK CAR CO.) and FR No. 2 143 728 (ECODYNE CORP.), and working on reverse flow cleaning cycles. Such processes however require a strong energy (such as electricity) to operate the pumps, the mixers, etc., and these types of energies are not available everywhere. It is therefore desirable to find a water purifying apparatus which, with a small amount of energy only, or even with only the pressure of the used water, will enable the preparation of drinking water; and this is precisely the object of the present invention.